U.S. Pat. No. 5,311,356 describes the simulation of the effects of optical lenses. For that purpose, sceneries are imaged on films by means of certain lenses. These films are offered to an observer's view for comparison. The film that gives the best visual impression indicates the lens to be selected. The method described in this publication, though, makes it possible only to record real scenes and to assess the resulting films in order to select a particular lens. The simulation of a 3D impression for filter arrays cannot be achieved by the teaching of the publication cited.
Through WO 93/10475, a 3D arrangement using left and right stereo images is known, in which 3D objects/scenes are simulated by producing left and right partial stereo images. The teaching of this publication, however, is not suitable either for simulating 3D impressions of arrangements with filter arrays.
DE 100 03 326 C2 of the present applicant describes a method and arrangements for producing a spatial impression, in which the observers do not require any aids for 3D perception. In this method, a wavelength filter array in front of (possibly also behind) an image generator, so that light propagation directions are specified for the light of the image elements of the image generator depending on their wavelengths. In conjunction with the visualization of a combined image composed of several views of a scene or object on the image elements of the image generator, it is thus achieved that observers at many positions of observation see predominantly a first selection of the views with one eye and predominantly a second selection of the views with the other eye. This produces a spatial impression.
While very good spatial impressions can be achieved with that method, the design of new filter arrays in combination with changing the respective image combination rules is a laborious and expensive affair. So far, every new filter structure desired for trying its effect has to be fabricated as a material object, which makes filter design expensive.